Feature request: Allow dithering without guiding (nor guiding camera)

givoly

Sometimes, I don't need a guide camera because my polar alignment and tracking is good enough for my focal length, exposure time, and pixel size. However, I do want to dither - to prevent walking noise from accumulating and making it very difficult to post-process my image to improve it. I want to dither, but using the main camera rather than a guide camera. Why would it not be possible to perform same dithering without using a guide camera? Every N frames, move randomly by Y pixels, let thing settle, and continue exposing? My use would be for live stacking / EAA. However, I can see this generally useful. A guide camera is really not necessary for this.
Oh, and also the dither could verify plate solving to see that the frame is still correct - and make any small corrections in the process... that way, guiding may not be required at all for such circumstances.

CaptainCosmic

Why has
there been no reply to this feature request. Like a number of other ASIAir Plus users I would like to see this added, or given a reason why it is not possible. FYI I have multiple pieces of ZWO equipment including a guide camera. However I do not guide when using my Hyperstar but would like to dither. A prompt answer would be appreciated.
David

Corsair

@Tech@ZWO @PMTeam@ZWO

Dithering without the need for a guide camera (and guide scope), in Live and Autorun/Plan modes would be a great feature to add.

It can be done - Sharpcap does it.

It would be great to see this on the ASIAIR Pro/Plus/Mini.

Twinkeldonk

Hi I am having this same question.

Is it possible to start dithering in the dithering menu of the Asiar Mini without having the autoguiding cam and guidescope attached. Since I thought dithering only is a seperate instruction to the mount anyway.
I am using a laptop now but want to start with Asiar instead for transportability and ease of control and use with a smartphone app.

My arguments for that are as follows.

First, I only have light mount (Skywatcher AzGTi), main cam and lens. I want to astrophotograph and travel as light as possible.
I do not see the Dithering menu mention anything about needing to have Guiding started.

Second, And added to that is that I have reached very good and stable polar alignment with my Skywatcher AZGTI mount , which is standing on a very stable concrete floor. 20 arcseconds I can reach. So I already can do very long exposures while having no autoguiding in place.
I dont even have it. 300 seconds withouth any startrails at 250mm , even 600 seconds gave me no trails, but is way to long for me, you loose too much if you have to dump frames. I mainly use 120 seconds.

Third, I can imagine that a change like that has to work for many different gear that can be connected to the Asiair.
But if it could be at least an option to choose from yourself when youre sure you want it. Other control software has been implementing it as well, like Nina (which I am using now but want to leave), Apt and Ekos as far as I know.

So Autoguiding is adding cost, extra software to maintain and run and extra managing of cam and scope, plus a balancing disadvantage.
While dithering is necessary to control noise in the pictures before stacking.

I could see in the bbs that this question has been raised more often , and that you already looking into it for a long time.

( An answer from your Team in december 2019 was : About the Dither without Guiding feature, I have feedback to our team and added to the todos, AFAIK, it can be implemented but we need to do more research on it. For now, we can only do dither with guiding.)

I hope you can make it work soon.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Wil Vree

Corsair

Twinkeldonk in the ASIAIR manual here it says:
https://www.yuque.com/zwopkb/asiair/dither

Dithering is a controlled process that moves slightly the sensor (mount) along guiding axis by a controlled amount. the frequency and distance can be set by the user.

...

Dithering Settings are accessed via the Guide Settings tab. User can elect to activate or not dithering, define the pixel shift during dithering and the stabilisation parameters prior to initiate next image capture.

So for the ASIAIR, at the moment, dithering is linked to guiding.

Hence the request to implement dithering in Live and Autorun/Plan Mode without the need for guiding.

Tech@ZWO

Currently guide camera is needed for dither feature, i passed this feedback to our ASIAIR team, will consider this in the feature. thanks.

SFaMKOb2

Hi, how are we on this? Have you decided to add dithering w/o autoguiding anytime soon?

dkracht

Hi all,
I desparately need dithing without autoguiding. N.I.N.A. does it, APT does it. I need it because I do not autoguide with my ZWO ASI294MC Pro on a HEQ5Pro at f=600mm. Maximum exposure time is 60 seconds here in the middle of the big and light polluted city of Hamburg, Germany.
Clear Skies
Dietrich Kracht

735z4pr0

Software dithering without guiding is one of very good features of the latest years for enthusiasts of assisted sky observation... very strange ZWO didn't implemented yet.
I hope this will come in quickly... instead I'll look forward to change Asiair with other hardware/software that give me more satisfaction with less effort and less money :-)

dkracht

When will dithering w/o autoguiding come to the ASIAIR? In the mean time I am switching back to N.I.N.A. on windows and consider to sell my ASIAIR PLus...
CS Dietrich Kracht

BIGguiX

yes please ! that would be great !